Islam in Media Roundup | 27 January – 2 February 2020

United States

Trump Targets a New Group of Immigrants

Trump Targets a New Group of Immigrants

The Atlantic

Last week, Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering adding seven new countries to its travel ban. A majority of them—Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, and Nigeria, which is by far the most populous of the seven—are in Africa.
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'Muslim Ban Should End, Not Expand': Groups Slam Trump Travel Ban

'Muslim Ban Should End, Not Expand': Groups Slam Trump Travel Ban

Al Jazeera

Trump administration expands travel ban to include Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.
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The Jewish New Yorkers Standing in Solidarity With Their Muslim Neighbours

The Jewish New Yorkers Standing in Solidarity With Their Muslim Neighbours

Middle East Eye

For three years, members of a Jewish LGBTQ organization have gone every Friday to support worshippers at a Manhattan mosque.
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The Torturers Wanted to Stop, but the CIA Kept Going

The Torturers Wanted to Stop, but the CIA Kept Going

The Atlantic

An interrogator testified that even after prisoner Abu Zubaydah started cooperating, the waterboarding continued.
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Guantánamo Testimony Exposes Role of Doctors in C.I.A. Interrogations

Guantánamo Testimony Exposes Role of Doctors in C.I.A. Interrogations

The New York Times

The hearings have shown the role of medical professionals, including keeping count during waterboarding sessions, in the agency black sites where prisoners were tortured.
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Bernie Sanders Endorsed by Muslim Group, Iowa’s Sole Muslim State Lawmaker

Bernie Sanders Endorsed by Muslim Group, Iowa’s Sole Muslim State Lawmaker

The Huffington Post

The senator from Vermont has been a top contender among Muslim American voters in the Democratic presidential contest.
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Robert Saleh’s Rise to the Super Bowl Began in a Muslim Community Where Football Is King

Robert Saleh’s Rise to the Super Bowl Began in a Muslim Community Where Football Is King

The Washington Post

A Muslim Arab-American of Lebanese descent, Saleh grew up in Dearborn, which has one of the largest Muslim populations in the United States. Football is king there, just like any other city or town in Michigan. It is common to see women in hijab at Michigan Stadium on fall Saturdays.
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Canada

Quebec Mosque Shooting: Victims Are Healing — Each at Their Own Pace

Quebec Mosque Shooting: Victims Are Healing — Each at Their Own Pace

Montreal Gazette

Three years after the tragedy, some success stories: the mosque is being expanded; a Muslim cemetery is to open. But then there’s Bill 21.
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Too Little Has Changed Since Quebec Mosque Massacre Shattered Lives

Too Little Has Changed Since Quebec Mosque Massacre Shattered Lives

The Star

Najat Naanaa’s face beamed as she invited people to donate to her local mosque during a recent community gathering in Toronto.
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China

“This Could Be a Massive Disaster”: What Happens If the Coronavirus Hits China’s Internment Camps?

“This Could Be a Massive Disaster”: What Happens If the Coronavirus Hits China’s Internment Camps?

Vox

The Wuhan virus could escalate the suffering of Muslims in the camps, where conditions have created a perfect breeding ground for infectious disease.
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India

Who Is an Indian?

Who Is an Indian?

The Atlantic

The question facing the country 70 years after it became a republic is similar to that from decades prior.
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Myanmar

History Will Show the Warnings of a Genocide: Why ICJ's Ruling Won't Save Rohingya Muslims

History Will Show the Warnings of a Genocide: Why ICJ's Ruling Won't Save Rohingya Muslims

The New Arab

Last week, the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down a historic decision in finding Myanmar guilty of “causing irreparable damage to the rights” of its Muslim minority, the Rohingya, ordering its government to take emergency measures to prevent genocide.
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Tajikistan

As Tajikistan's Muslims Feel More Heat, Mosque Turned Into Cinema

As Tajikistan's Muslims Feel More Heat, Mosque Turned Into Cinema

Eurasianet

President Rahmon seeks to cloak himself in legitimacy with faith while tormenting the devout.
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Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Hebrew Translation of the Quran Accused of Making Shocking Changes to Appease Israel

Saudi Arabia’s Hebrew Translation of the Quran Accused of Making Shocking Changes to Appease Israel

The Muslim Vibe

Many Muslims and anti-Zionist activists have accused this translation of supporting a “Judaised” version of the Quran – by erasing the Prophet Mohammed’s name and renaming Al-Aqsa Mosque, many see this as a move to support a fundamentalist Jewish version of history as well as supporting Israel’s claims over the contested holy site.
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Chinese Uighurs in Saudi Face Impossible Choice

Chinese Uighurs in Saudi Face Impossible Choice

Yahoo! News

The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home.
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What's Really Behind Saudi Arabia's Inclusion of Chinese as a Third Language?

What's Really Behind Saudi Arabia's Inclusion of Chinese as a Third Language?

The New Arab

Saudi Arabia has officially implemented Standard Chinese as a third language in the country’s schools. The first phase is currently underway and includes lessons taught in a total of eight secondary schools for boys only in three Saudi cities: Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
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Nigeria

Nigeria Had No Warning on Potential U.S. Travel Ban - Minister

Nigeria Had No Warning on Potential U.S. Travel Ban - Minister

Reuters

Nigeria had no warning from Washington that it could be added to the list of countries subject to a U.S. travel ban, information minister Lai Mohammed said on Monday, adding such a move would be “hasty” and send the wrong signal to investors.
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Archbishop Kaigama on Christians and Muslims in Nigeria

Archbishop Kaigama on Christians and Muslims in Nigeria

Vatican News

The Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama, has called on Christians and Muslims to show genuine respect and mutual acceptance towards each other’s beliefs.
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Algeria

African foreign ministers meet in Algeria over Libya conflict

African foreign ministers meet in Algeria over Libya conflict

Al Jazeera

Ministers at Algerian forum to call for enforcement of arms embargo and end to foreign meddling in Libya’s civil war.
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Attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger: Why Are Jihadists Thriving in West Africa?

Attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger: Why Are Jihadists Thriving in West Africa?

Global News

This region was not always a hotbed for extremism, though — far from it. The origins of this violence can be dated back to the Algerian civil war that began in the early 1990s and spanned a decade.
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Italy

Italy's Salvini and Discussions of Islamophobia

Italy's Salvini and Discussions of Islamophobia

Daily Sabah

Anti-Jewish hatred is as unacceptable as it is politically inconvenient, while anti-Islamic hatred remains a cornerstone of its propaganda. To close the circle, what’s better than to blame the hated Muslims for the hostility toward Jews?
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United Kingdom

Rotherham Muslims Launch ‘Guardian’ Group After Far-Right Threats

Rotherham Muslims Launch ‘Guardian’ Group After Far-Right Threats

The Guardian

Members of the Muslim community in Rotherham are launching a neighbourhood protection group with more than 100 volunteers after three mosques were targeted by the far-right. The new body, which will be styled on the Shomrim group in Jewish communities, said it would aim to provide reassurance and possibly self-defence training for imams in light of the security concerns.
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Is Our Islam Ethnocentric?

Is Our Islam Ethnocentric?

The Muslim Vibe

One such example is the legitimisation of racism among Asian and Arab Muslims; concepts such as facial noor and more overt expressions of racism lead to darker-skinned ethnicities being excluded from certain mosques and hence communities. This inhibits the formation of an Islamic fraternity that crosses ethnic divides.
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International

The Muslims of Auschwitz: Tales of Tragedy and Heroism 75 Years on

The Muslims of Auschwitz: Tales of Tragedy and Heroism 75 Years on

The National

Academics estimate more than 1,000 Muslims could have been imprisoned by the Nazis in the Second World War.
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When Racism Goes Viral: The Coronavirus and Modern Muslim Orientalism

When Racism Goes Viral: The Coronavirus and Modern Muslim Orientalism

Muslim Matters

The coronavirus in question is found in bats, and thanks to the scientific expertise of social media, videos of Chinese people consuming anything from bat soup to baby mice and rats are popping up as “proof” of the disease’s cause.
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Expanded Travel Ban Gives World's Democracies More Cover for Anti-Muslim Measures

Expanded Travel Ban Gives World's Democracies More Cover for Anti-Muslim Measures

Religion News

Less in doubt is the ban’s immorality or its irrelevance to national security: Since 2001, not a single fatal attack was carried out by immigrants from the countries targeted by the ban. What’s less often noted is how Trump’s Muslim ban is part of an alarming trend of ostensibly democratic nation-states targeting Muslims.
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There Is More to Muslim Women Than Headscarves and World Hijab Day Should Show That

There Is More to Muslim Women Than Headscarves and World Hijab Day Should Show That

The New Arab

The start of February marked World Hijab Day, (WHD) but it was met with an array of mixed feelings from many. Founded by American Muslim woman Nazma Khan in 2013, WHD aims to “foster religious tolerance and understanding by inviting women, including non-hijabi Muslims as well as non-Muslims, to experience wearing the hijab for one day.”
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Sheikh Hamdan Joins Arab and Muslim Fans in Mourning Kobe Bryant’s Death

Sheikh Hamdan Joins Arab and Muslim Fans in Mourning Kobe Bryant’s Death

Arab News

Another NBA legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar mourned Bryant’s death and said he will remember him “as a man who was much more than an athlete.”
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Maydan editors selected some of the most thought-provoking news items on issues around Islam, religion and public-life for you. Let us know what you have been reading. Drop us a line at mediaroundups@themaydan.com!